Starting the advocacy journey

Your advocacy goal emerges when you consider four key questions:

• What are you advocating for?
• What are the obstacles you need to overcome?
• What resources are available?
• What level of change is realistic?

It is vital that you are very clear about what you are advocating for, and the changes you are seeking.

For example, you may set a goal to advocate for universal opt-out hepatitis C testing within 48 hours of incarceration for all people entering the prison you’re working in. This goal is clear because it is specific and has clear boundaries around the proposed program. A vague goal without clear constraints is not helpful – for example, “conduct hepatitis C testing on people entering prison” is unlikely to be successful as it is not clearly defined.

A clear, well-defined goal allows you to understand the obstacles you need to overcome and the resources available to you.

You need to map out the people, decision-making processes, and current mindsets that you need to influence to support prison-based hepatitis C programs. Doing this will help you to develop a clear and realistic plan for your advocacy activities.

Some issues you may consider are:

• Interest – what is the level of interest on the issue? How is it currently debated?
• Stakeholders – who are the key decision-makers and opinion leaders that you need to influence? What are the relationships and power dynamics between these key stakeholders?
• Decision-making processes – how do decisions get made between stakeholders?
• Timing – when is the best time or opportunity to raise the issue?
• Thoughts and beliefs – what do your stakeholders currently think about hepatitis C care and prison-based care? Are there values or beliefs that may influence their thinking? Are there conflicting viewpoints between stakeholders?
• Current setting – what hepatitis C or other health activities are currently in place in prison, if anything?

When advocating for a prison-based hepatitis C testing, treatment and prevention program, you need to consider each of the issues above with relation to a wide range of stakeholders including:

• Policymakers and funders
• Prison managers and staff
• Healthcare workers in prisons
• People in prison who you hope will participate in the program.

Understanding the role of stakeholders is a critical part of your advocacy process, and it will take time to build and foster these relationships. The Advocacy Strategy Framework shown below will help you work through the process of better defining stakeholder groups.

To get the message across to your stakeholders, you need the right people with the right words at the right time. The messenger can be an individual, an organisation, or a group of people, and you should consider the following questions:

• Does your proposed messenger have the credibility, presence, experience, and resources to be taken seriously by the stakeholders?
• Does your proposed messenger have the social and communication skills required to effectively communicate the message and negotiate with different stakeholders?
• What else is needed to enhance the legitimacy and effectiveness of your advocacy efforts?

Assessing the messenger means looking honestly at who might be the right person to be the ‘face’ of the advocacy approach. You might need to involve different people in different roles, especially when interfacing with different stakeholder groups.

For example, you may need one messenger to speak to decision-makers and another messenger to lead the advocacy effort with people in prison. For instance, involving peer advocates as visible leaders for the advocacy effort among people in prison can increase levels of participation and interest from those you hope to test and treat.

You need to think about what you want to say to each stakeholder group (the message) and the ways you will present that message (the activities).

The goal of the message is to build ownership of the issue among your stakeholders. You want them to be so convinced by what you share, that they become champions of the idea. People rarely arrive at this point by being told something once – usually it requires repeated dialogue to build understanding, negotiate challenges, and answer questions.

This means that you will need to craft a clear message, and think about the activities you will use to get that message across to stakeholders. Some issues you should consider:

• You will need different messages for different stakeholder groups. For example, you will be asking funders and people in prison to commit to the program in different ways, so the message will be different.
• You will need different ways of getting the message to your stakeholder groups. For example, you might create posters for people in prisons, but you might create a powerpoint presentation for decision-makers.
• You will always need multiple communication activities for each group; you are unlikely to achieve your advocacy goal with one great presentation or poster. How can you continuously reinforce the message and provide opportunities for stakeholders to have their questions answered?

In designing the message and communication activities, you should think about:

• What does each stakeholder group need to understand the issues?
• What message would persuade each stakeholder group? How does this differ between groups?
• What activities and tools will you use to reach each stakeholder group? How will you equip them to share the messages themselves?
• What are the threats or challenges to your message being effective? Are there other issues that are likely to distract from or conflate your cause? How will you negotiate these threats?
• Can you foresee any likely opposition from each stakeholder group? How will you respond to this?

The columns in the grid can guide you to identify and map the different stakeholder groups or audiences you need to reach to achieve your advocacy goal.

You can then identify ways of crafting messages and activities that can work for several stakeholder groups.

The rows in the grid guide can guide you to identify the specific ways you should seek to influence each stakeholder group. The three rows suggest each stakeholder group’s level of engagement with the issue:

• Awareness – knowledge of the problem and the available solutions.
• Will – a desire to see change; belief that taking action will make a difference.
• Action – supporting or facilitating steps towards change.

It is helpful to see these three rows as a continuum, rather than strict categories. For example, some decision-makers might have a higher level of will or desire to test and treat hepatitis C in prison, but may not have known what action to take. In that case, you would map them at the top part of the ‘will’ row.